For some reason I couldn't add any pix to yesterday's post......
Sat am we took the train to Albuquerque. It takes about 1.5 hrs as it services several Indian townships en route. All for 3 dollars!! (As seniors) Hint: You need to pre-book a taxi before you leave SF as there is no cab rank at the station -as we discovered!
The temperature is much warmer here- at only 1 mile above sea level.
ABQ is dismissed in most guide books apart from the old town so Bob had booked us a B and B near there. It was just as described on its web site: in very quiet street close to the old town. Nancy is another delightful host who was very interested in life and politics in Europe and served up a great breakfast omelette-with chilli salsa on the side of course.
The old town is small and surrounded by a fairly tacky selection of touristy shops and eateries- or so it appeared to us after Santa Fe. However, we found a pleasant French restaurant for Sunday lunch today and yet another excellent museum is right next to the old town plaza. Its travelling exhibition happened to be a large collection of Goya etchings with illuminating captions- the subjects still so relevant to life today.
After lunch we sat in the sun in the park in the middle of the plaza and listened to a bluegrass trio.
Now we're in an airport hotel passing time til we try to sleep. As we have to wake at 3.45am it seems a little unlikely!
PS We watched the first episode of Breaking Bad (recommended by Saga mag) and found it is set in ABQ- a weird coincidence.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
State capitol
Santa Fe state capitol is the only one where the public are allowed completely free access:no security checks, Bob was allowed to keep his backpack.
It is build in a circle with corridors radiating out at the 4 quadrants. This is the shape of the State's logo a Zuni symbol. The galleries, on 3 floors round a cupola, are used as display areas for 500 pieces of art. We were allowed practically everywhere-even into the governor's outer office. It seemed strange walking around so freely. Glimpses into offices showed there are art works even on their walls. All in all a great,and free,way to spend a couple of hours.
Next stop was a delightful chocolate house. After some tasting I decided on a "european" blend to drink whilst Bob, as you who know him will not be surprised to hear, tasted all blends and then had 2 blends mixed together!
We spent the rest of the morning strolling through streets, galleries and arcades before lunch in a Mom and Pop diner- all hearty food but portions far too large for us.
In the evening we saw a docu in the local theatre on the revent Leonardo exhibition at the National. Turned out to be a Sky Arts film but it was very informative. It hit just the right note: not too academic nor to populist. The theatre was sold out.
Summary of impressions:
Everyone we met was again friendly and helpful, often exceptionally so. E.G.1. the owner of a small gallery who offered us a bottle of water as we still had 1.5 miles to walk up to the museum complex
2. the lady driver of a minibus on the town's free pick-up and drop service whom we hailed as she was waiting for the train to arrive. She took us to the other side of town and gave us a tour of the area before dropping us and returning to the station. She could have said she didn't have time and had to stick to the official route.
3 Motorists waiting for pedestrians at all junctions!!!
4 the chef who talked us through all the options for lunch and told us about his trips to Europe
5 the receptionist at the hotel who spent 10 minutes telling us his recommendations for places to see on maps he'd p.c'd for us.
It's all so different from Europe. Here friendliness is people's default setting and it doesn't seem false
It is build in a circle with corridors radiating out at the 4 quadrants. This is the shape of the State's logo a Zuni symbol. The galleries, on 3 floors round a cupola, are used as display areas for 500 pieces of art. We were allowed practically everywhere-even into the governor's outer office. It seemed strange walking around so freely. Glimpses into offices showed there are art works even on their walls. All in all a great,and free,way to spend a couple of hours.
Next stop was a delightful chocolate house. After some tasting I decided on a "european" blend to drink whilst Bob, as you who know him will not be surprised to hear, tasted all blends and then had 2 blends mixed together!
We spent the rest of the morning strolling through streets, galleries and arcades before lunch in a Mom and Pop diner- all hearty food but portions far too large for us.
In the evening we saw a docu in the local theatre on the revent Leonardo exhibition at the National. Turned out to be a Sky Arts film but it was very informative. It hit just the right note: not too academic nor to populist. The theatre was sold out.
Summary of impressions:
Everyone we met was again friendly and helpful, often exceptionally so. E.G.1. the owner of a small gallery who offered us a bottle of water as we still had 1.5 miles to walk up to the museum complex
2. the lady driver of a minibus on the town's free pick-up and drop service whom we hailed as she was waiting for the train to arrive. She took us to the other side of town and gave us a tour of the area before dropping us and returning to the station. She could have said she didn't have time and had to stick to the official route.
3 Motorists waiting for pedestrians at all junctions!!!
4 the chef who talked us through all the options for lunch and told us about his trips to Europe
5 the receptionist at the hotel who spent 10 minutes telling us his recommendations for places to see on maps he'd p.c'd for us.
It's all so different from Europe. Here friendliness is people's default setting and it doesn't seem false
Thursday, February 23, 2012
A little warmer
The temperature has risen a little over the past few days but a biting wind keeps springing up. This necessitated my buying some ear-muffs (whisper it- of beaver, farmed I'm hoping).
We've really immersed ourselves in the galleries and museums and seen some gorgeous art, ceramics, jewellery etc.
The state-run museums are excellent with state-of-the-art displays. We now know quite a bit about the history of New Mexico and I'm sorry that we've not had time to travel out to the pueblos to see the ancient adobe cave-dwellings and "sky-scrapers".
We walked 2 miles out of town to a museum complex and so feel quite justified in eating the fresh- baked cookies which the hotel always puts out at 4pm.
There are the usual issues over the treatment of the Native Americans (whom I know notice are being referred to -and calling themselves-Indians again). Some local tribes are very wealthy owning casinos, golf courses etc and taking advantage of being sovereign tribal states so they don't have to follow Federal tax and gambling laws. Good on them I say. A story in the NY Times today said that the big tobacco corps are annoyed at Indian tribes near the city processing tobacco and selling cheap, tax-free ciggies on their lands. A chief said "We tried poverty for 200 years so we thought we try prosperity"!
We've really immersed ourselves in the galleries and museums and seen some gorgeous art, ceramics, jewellery etc.
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| cute bunnies |
The state-run museums are excellent with state-of-the-art displays. We now know quite a bit about the history of New Mexico and I'm sorry that we've not had time to travel out to the pueblos to see the ancient adobe cave-dwellings and "sky-scrapers".
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| Apache sun dancer |
We walked 2 miles out of town to a museum complex and so feel quite justified in eating the fresh- baked cookies which the hotel always puts out at 4pm.
Monday, February 20, 2012
From warm desert to snowy desert
We spent several hours of our last day in Tucson at the Aviation museum: for once Bob got to choose! En route we drove across the local air force base, past literally thousands of planes in neat rows. Next was the plane graveyard where broken, crashed and obsolete aircraft, civil and military, have their final resting ground. It makes for a bizarre sight.
The museum was interesting, even for me, with little knowledge of such things. The juxtaposition of huge craft right next to tiny machines and the first planes next to the fairly recent couldn't help but leave an impression. A couple of old Air Force 1's were also on view.
Our last stop before handing back our hire car was the old Spanish mission of San Javier el Bac. The buildings have been in a continuous state of conservation/restoration almost since they were built by the Jesuit missionaries in the 1700's. There is still a congregation of local native americans but , as we went on a Sunday, there were hundreds of visitors, both tourists and pilgrims. As mass was in progress we couldn't go into the church but we looked around the museum and climbed a mound nearby which has a shrine.
There are very few other buildings round the mission complex so it is possible to imagine what it was like in the past.
Today we were up at 5 to catch a flight to Alberquerque. From there we were taken to Santa Fe in a minibus- the only passengers. Imperceptibly we climbed over 2,000 ft finding snow on the grass and vegetation just outside the city. It's 7,000ft approx above sea level and -once again- our arrival has coincided with the first cold spell of this winter.....The high today has been just above freezing.
We've never seen an American city like this....all low level, mostly adobe buildings. It has many art galleries and sales rooms making it the 3rd biggest art market in North America. We've already seen some beautiful paintings, pottery, statues and jewellery.
The museum was interesting, even for me, with little knowledge of such things. The juxtaposition of huge craft right next to tiny machines and the first planes next to the fairly recent couldn't help but leave an impression. A couple of old Air Force 1's were also on view.
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| Freight carrier for space programme |
Our last stop before handing back our hire car was the old Spanish mission of San Javier el Bac. The buildings have been in a continuous state of conservation/restoration almost since they were built by the Jesuit missionaries in the 1700's. There is still a congregation of local native americans but , as we went on a Sunday, there were hundreds of visitors, both tourists and pilgrims. As mass was in progress we couldn't go into the church but we looked around the museum and climbed a mound nearby which has a shrine.
Today we were up at 5 to catch a flight to Alberquerque. From there we were taken to Santa Fe in a minibus- the only passengers. Imperceptibly we climbed over 2,000 ft finding snow on the grass and vegetation just outside the city. It's 7,000ft approx above sea level and -once again- our arrival has coincided with the first cold spell of this winter.....The high today has been just above freezing.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Desert city
Here in Tucson our b and b is in a private house in the suburbs. It's very well situated with desert in front and a mall with lots of eating places behind. Our host once had a restaurant and now teaches food science at Arizona U so breakfasts are feasts.
Tucson is a strange city with virtually no down town area. It's like a smaller version of LA: everyone drives everywhere and the suburbs sprawl out in all directions. The surrounding desert is surprisingly lush- the greenest in the USA apparently, despite being the hottest and driest. It is dotted with saguaro cacti which only grow locally and are very strange.
They can be +150 years old and don't start to throw out their arms until they are 75.
Yesterday we spent a very entertaining few hours at the Sonora-Arizona Desert museum which is a type of zoo/education centre with lots of local animal and bird life. My favourites were the prairie dogs and the humming birds.
We also visited the Tucson Museum of Art which has a temporary exhibition about Frieda Kahlo. I was very interested in this having read Barbara Kingsolver's Lacuna recently.
Today was cold and drizzly to start so we visited another art gallery in a rambling adobe house and then went on a fruitless search for a needlework shop. We finished the day with a drive through a small part of the Saguaro National Park.....very disappointing lack of life but we did see a roadrunner.
Tucson is a strange city with virtually no down town area. It's like a smaller version of LA: everyone drives everywhere and the suburbs sprawl out in all directions. The surrounding desert is surprisingly lush- the greenest in the USA apparently, despite being the hottest and driest. It is dotted with saguaro cacti which only grow locally and are very strange.
They can be +150 years old and don't start to throw out their arms until they are 75.
Yesterday we spent a very entertaining few hours at the Sonora-Arizona Desert museum which is a type of zoo/education centre with lots of local animal and bird life. My favourites were the prairie dogs and the humming birds.
We also visited the Tucson Museum of Art which has a temporary exhibition about Frieda Kahlo. I was very interested in this having read Barbara Kingsolver's Lacuna recently.
Today was cold and drizzly to start so we visited another art gallery in a rambling adobe house and then went on a fruitless search for a needlework shop. We finished the day with a drive through a small part of the Saguaro National Park.....very disappointing lack of life but we did see a roadrunner.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
The Friendliest city
It's official, at least in our experience, San Antonio is the friendliest city we've ever been to.
Evidence: !. almost every time we stopped and opened our map someone approached us within a minute to offer help. Once a girl got off her bike, parked it and came back to us- on a very cold morning.
2. on our 6 mile walk today, along the river to the Art Museum, more people greeted us than didn't, including path sweepers one of whom wished us a Happy Valentine's Day
3 all restaurant staff have been chatty and inquiring whether we're from "out of state"!
4 everyone chats at breakfast and in bars
Other points we've noticed about the city: there's no graffiti anywhere, neither is there dog poo (so different from European cities). There are little road maps on many of the lamp posts so it's easy to find your way.
It's an easy city to walk round as the centre is small
The streets off the small centre are very quiet.(and somewhat featureless and boring) King William district is very quiet and yet only 10 mins walk from down town
The SA Art Museum is a lovely building, inside that is, with incredible collections of Egyptian, Chinese,and Japanese artefacts amongst others
The airport is only 20 mins from King William
Our very genial host at the Gardenia Inn, Beauregard St, who talks a lot like Johnny Cash and is very sadly just recently widowed, claims his most frequently asked question is, "Why did they build the Alamo right in the middle of down town?"!! His answer, "Yes, it's a marvel none of those cannon balls hit a skyscraper."
Ate across the street in the quirky cafe-2 for 1 home- made burgers tonight-as everywhere is booked up with St Valentine celebrants. Off to Tucson tomorrow. We'll see how Arizonians compare
Evidence: !. almost every time we stopped and opened our map someone approached us within a minute to offer help. Once a girl got off her bike, parked it and came back to us- on a very cold morning.
2. on our 6 mile walk today, along the river to the Art Museum, more people greeted us than didn't, including path sweepers one of whom wished us a Happy Valentine's Day
3 all restaurant staff have been chatty and inquiring whether we're from "out of state"!
4 everyone chats at breakfast and in bars
Other points we've noticed about the city: there's no graffiti anywhere, neither is there dog poo (so different from European cities). There are little road maps on many of the lamp posts so it's easy to find your way.
It's an easy city to walk round as the centre is small
The streets off the small centre are very quiet.(and somewhat featureless and boring) King William district is very quiet and yet only 10 mins walk from down town
The SA Art Museum is a lovely building, inside that is, with incredible collections of Egyptian, Chinese,and Japanese artefacts amongst others
The airport is only 20 mins from King William
Our very genial host at the Gardenia Inn, Beauregard St, who talks a lot like Johnny Cash and is very sadly just recently widowed, claims his most frequently asked question is, "Why did they build the Alamo right in the middle of down town?"!! His answer, "Yes, it's a marvel none of those cannon balls hit a skyscraper."
Ate across the street in the quirky cafe-2 for 1 home- made burgers tonight-as everywhere is booked up with St Valentine celebrants. Off to Tucson tomorrow. We'll see how Arizonians compare
Monday, February 13, 2012
Remember the Alamo!
Awoke to drizzle but temps already up on yesterday's with a promise of 20 degrees higher by mid afternoon.
After another sumptuous breakfast we explored the local area and had a guided tour of a house built in 1870. There are many lovely houses in the King William area and many are being /have been renovated since the 60's when they had become very run down. Most were built by German immigrants.
We walked up to down town and watched the IMAX film on the Alamo which turned out to be pretty much as expected: a very patriotic, shallow look at what happened. When we emerged after 45 minute the skies were clear and the temperature was rising. We then visited the actual Alamo which is little more than a few walls and the usual tourist info and gift store selling tat. It is right down town so surrounded now by high buildings. The grounds are very attractively planted but there's little to bring back the feel of the old mission/fort.
Next stop was the bar at the Menger Hotel, the oldest in Texas where Teddy Roosevelt recruited cowboys as soldiers for his invasion of Cuba- The Rough Riders. unchanged since the turn of the last century it has a great atmosphere, a friendly barmaid and a giant moose head.
We walked on to the Mexican market but wished we hadn't bothered.....more tat.
Now it's time for another Mexican meal, this time right next door.
After another sumptuous breakfast we explored the local area and had a guided tour of a house built in 1870. There are many lovely houses in the King William area and many are being /have been renovated since the 60's when they had become very run down. Most were built by German immigrants.
We walked up to down town and watched the IMAX film on the Alamo which turned out to be pretty much as expected: a very patriotic, shallow look at what happened. When we emerged after 45 minute the skies were clear and the temperature was rising. We then visited the actual Alamo which is little more than a few walls and the usual tourist info and gift store selling tat. It is right down town so surrounded now by high buildings. The grounds are very attractively planted but there's little to bring back the feel of the old mission/fort.
Next stop was the bar at the Menger Hotel, the oldest in Texas where Teddy Roosevelt recruited cowboys as soldiers for his invasion of Cuba- The Rough Riders. unchanged since the turn of the last century it has a great atmosphere, a friendly barmaid and a giant moose head.
We walked on to the Mexican market but wished we hadn't bothered.....more tat.
Now it's time for another Mexican meal, this time right next door.
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